SOURCE: Segal, Charles. “Female Death and Male Tears.” In Euripides and the Poet of Sorrow: Art, Gender, and Commemoration in Alcestis, Hippolytus, and Hecuba, pp. 51-72. Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 1993.
In the following excerpt, Segal focuses on death and mourning in the Alcestis and contends that the play, despite its depiction of women's feelings, is a firmly patriarchal work.